holy COW!

Two quick things.

One. Yesterday was a good day to be poor. I'm not invested. Therefore, I didn't lose my ass.

Two. I just saw Andy Frye. In a suit. I wish i carried a camera around. (good look andy, bring it to the races. for serious!)

madison. day one.

motel room full of mirrors. ."Hey! Fuuuccckkkk Yoooouuuu: Slayer at the bar. Stupid spray painted flat back civic street race club. 2nd gear chirps. IHOP. Angell Park. Bad Start. Barrier crash. (I cleared it, bike did not. wheel hit barrier, did a few somersaults. put me on my back, and i ducked so as to not get hit by flying bicycle. Lost a few spots in that one...)

Back on bike. Moving back up, a little. approaching hill. shift harder. Uphill. dudes going slow. stand. pass on the inside. Crack! no more go. huh?. Pedal more. Nothing. Look down. Derailleur trying to go into crank. No longer attached to bike. Broken. Race over. huh...throw bike. get mad.

anyhow. that's pretty much day one. JP killed it (the other JP...not me. BUT, technically, I did kill it. But the "it" I killed was my bike.)

BUT, after being bummed for the rest of the day, I got anther one and put it on at the hotel. all was not lost.

cross vegas?

Spoilers?

Trebon beat Page. If this is going to be a theme, that's gonna piss me off. BUT, Wicks and Johnson also beat Page. This can't happen. BUT, Page has won his last three races...

And Lance? 22nd!?! That's not bad. I somehow thought he'd do better though. I give him credit for showing up and not getting lapped. Riding Unattached, though. Astana doesn't have a cross team?

That's all.

Good job Ben. You just REALLY raced the best in the country.

an uninteresting week.

Well. I've been back. Missed the St. Cloud race. And I do mean "missed" it. Sucks I couldn't go, but I had to work. Grrr.... Margaret went though. And she won! First cross race ever. I'm very proud of her. I think that's very awesome. We made her city bike into a makeshift cross bike. Seems to work ok. If anyone has a cheap smaller (50cm ish) frameset that they aren't using, I'm the one you need to inform of it. Or her...We gotta get her on something proper, if she's going to keep up at it. She seems to be having fun.

Ben Popper has been doing quite well in his new season. I'm very much looking forward to seeing him this weekend. Madison, here we come. Ready or not. The team, I mean...I'm not so sure that we're ready, but I've done just about all that I can, and we'll see if that's enough. I heard off camber descents and big hills. I hate the former, and quite enjoy the latter. We'll see how it goes.

What else? Cross practice last night was fun, albeit wet. We saved a turtle. I think. I'm calling it saved. You may call it harrassed. It didn't bite me, though it sure wanted too. Just wanted to get it off the football field. Stupid thing.

In other news...anyone looking for a dog? We need a good home for a young pit bull thing. A teammate is the temporary caretaker, but we can't have it. We've got too much going on already. So, if you're interested, let me know.

Basically that's about it. I'd rather rest than go ride my bike today, but I should get off my ass. At least it's not raining today.

Yep. That's all. Sweet, huh?

rest daze

That's about it. Not enough down time. Don't want to do more miles tomorrow. 50% chance of rain. 101.97 miles. Do not want. Oh well. As long as it isn't raining. SUPPOSED to have a tailwind. I'll believe it when I see it.

Went to Hughes Chocolates today. Best shit ever. Got some coconut and maple creams (dark chocolate) and some (dark) chocolate covered oreos (mint and peanut butter). I pretty much win. Not cheap, though... Oh well. Worth it. (like that wasn't the point of this trip!)

Oh well. Tomorrow is the last riding day. Bought the bus ticket home. Get in at about 11pm on Monday night. I can't wait to see my wife. I miss that woman. My home life is nice. I don't need to be away any longer. It's a work in progress, but what isn't, I suppose. I enjoy it. The lady, the dogs, the technicolor house...it's all great.

Basically, I miss Minneapolis. The trip has been fun, but I'm ready for it to be over. Ready for it to be cross season...Hope my legs will recover and be ok in a bit...It's funny that I'll be back down here in a few weeks for the UCI races in Madison...Whoo!

That's about it. At least for now...

-Jason

keep on trucking.

We're in Wausau now. 12 hour day yesterday.

Left Spooner at about 11 on tuesday. Beautiful ride down HWY 8. Gorgeous. Windy, though. A whole lot of headwind so far this trip. Saw a bear swimming across the Chippewa River just outside of Bruce. Rode south a bit more looking for a hotel. Turs out the hotel we were aiming for was "closed". That sucked. So, we went across the way to the Cenex and got some bad coffee (Oh, and it's dark by this point...and getting cold)Turns out there is another hotel about 6 miles down the road (Paradise Shores). We go there. Just keep on turning pedals. THat's the name of the game this week. Hotel was expensive, but it had a ton of neat stuff that we didn't use. Like the pool, hot tub, fitness room, sauna, arcade, bar/restaurant. Oh well. It got down to about 40 last night. Bit too cold to be camping.

So we stayed there (Oh, this was in Holcome)and then headed out to here in the morning. We went throught the forest. It was supremely dissapointing. Just not close enough. People live in there! There are "cities"! Seems like a crime. Never were we just enveloped in trees and other neat stuff. Did see a LOT of pheasants being held hostage. A lot of corn. We went past a rode to an emu ranch, but I gave up going down it (gravel) before we got there...

We rode over near Athens, where some lady offered a us a place to sleep (she's puts up drivers for the amish...something about when they have to go far, they sell out and hire cars.) But we declined and kept moving. Made it to Marathon city at dark. Ate a toasted subway. Nothing worth doing here, and it was supposed to rain. Only get down to about 50 degrees though. I was ready to camp, but Neal wanted to hotel. He paid for it, so I'm ok with it. I'll have to retension my wheel before we go today.

Oh...rode across NN in the very dark and didn't get hit by cars. The silhouette of Rib Mountain in the near horizon. Looks big. Don't want anything to do with it on this heavy bike!

Oh well. I'm ready to find some bagels and then head to Amherst. 50 or so mile day today, but we can't get there until after 6. Works for me! Trip is winding down. Few more days. Another 240 miles or so. I think we've gone 285 or so. Stupid Trek computer reset itself somewhere between mile 248 and 253 or so. Jerk.

YES! legs coming around and feeling good. Just keep em turning. Piece of cake.

day 1. not quite as planned.

neil woke up with a flat. he didn't make it to my house until 8. then we went out to eat with LG/caitlin/tc/ and margaret. that was fun. Everyone but Margaret rode us out to our turn on the Gateway Trail. Some crazy old guy tried to kick us riding the other way. "Bastards! Get over!". stupid old codger. Uneventful trip. Lot of rolling hills and headwinds. And cold. It was 49 degrees when we stoppped for the night and was 34 when I got woken up. At my moms house. Thank god. Otherwise we'd have frozen to death. Little worried about the next nights. Hope it stays a bit warmer. Gotta get south!

We didn't make it as far as we'd liked. Called my Mom in Cumberland, and told her to head south while we were heading north. Heard a car crash. Didn't see it, though. We made it into Washburn County. That was where we were headed. About 15 miles short of the total. It was cold, getting dark, and sucked.

I never called this a tour. It's a trip. 104 miles by bike. we'll see what happens today.

trips.

No, I didn't break edge. Not that kind of a trip.

I've been off this thing for some time. This is updates. Last week I worked it out to get a few days off, so I went to Oshkosh/Milwaukee for a bit over Labor Day. It was GREAT to see my wife. It had been some time. It was great to see my new family, as well as my father. Trip went quick. Some food, some hanging out. A party for Labor day. Complete with Go Karts and Mini bikes and food. It was freaking warm down there, though. I didn't bring shorts. It had been cold up here. Oh well. More excuses to wear a tie. It's awesome. Anyhow, It was fun.

New game. It's called HellFire. Basically, you call it. Say "HellFire" and you have to make your immediate viscinity as hot as possible. I.E. that car drive to the suburbs on a 90 degree day. Call HellFire and the windows get shut and the heat gets cranked. No one really wins, it just keeps everyone miserable. HOORAY.

example. The rules of this game were being explained to Margaret and I. It was a bit warm in the apartment, so we told Andy to turn the AC on. A few minutes later he came out and asked if we called HellFire. He turned on the heat, instead of the AC, because we had been talking about it. He blew it, though. Had he not brought our attention to it, I bet no one would have noticed until it was 90 degrees in there. We were distracted by people playing Rock Band.

Sounds stupid, but I love my friends.

That, and cyclocross practicing has started. Should be fun. Still kinda know what I'm doing.

Trip starts tomorrow. Leaving the house at 7:30. Going to Seward Cafe for breakfast, and then off to Spooner for day one. Will update with goings on as available. Will have the camera along as well. Hopefully something neat will happen.

Things I want to see.

A big tractor carrying hay driving down the road.
Calvin peeing on something.
Tazmanian Devil OR naked girl silhouette mudflaps.
Spray Painted roadkill.
And Ostrich farm.
A moose in Chequamagon.
A Bald Eagle.
Pink Sunset/fancy clouds.

I'd settle for that.

We'll see what I can find.

Oh, and ZOOOM!